Great Progress!!

Today was a much better day; Evan is making great progress and is doing so much better. We saw the doctor this morning and he said that Evan will get a new PIC line Wednesday morning and then he will be released from the hospital on Thursday. They have him on a very strong antibiotic that if it is given too fast it will make him deaf and mess up his kidneys. Of course they are being very careful, he can still hear me (poor guy) and they are watching his kidneys. He has been draining a lot of infection from his pancreas but it has slowed down dramatically and we are hoping that the drainage will completely stop soon. Once the drainage stops, Evan will be able to eat food again and the PIC line can be removed a few days later. The goal is to be eating again by Monday. We told the doctor that there were several people fasting on his behalf and he said that the fasting helped Evan more than he as a doctor could. This has been an amazing, testimony building experience for our family. Evan has been showing a lot more energy now that the infections are being treated and is taking laps around the 10th floor. They say that 10 laps equals a mile and today he has taken 8 ½ laps. He will probably take a couple more tonight just to say he walked a mile. He was even up to playing a game of rummy with me, of course he won but I’ll get him next time. Does anyone know a good way for me to cheat?? Teehehehe

Love to all,
Evan & Julie

Here we go again

Well that was fun, NOT!! It looks like Evan will stay in the hospital until Wednesday or Thursday. The CT scan showed that there was an area near the pancreas that was inflamed and the doctor wasn't sure if that was the reason for the high fever or if there was an infection in the PIC line. Either way, they have to treat it the same way with antibiotics. They removed the PIC line and so now Evan will be without any nutrients for the next two days until they can put in another PIC line. He still can't eat anything so the only thing he will get is IV fluids. It wasn't until nearly 2:00am before they had us set up in a room, we were both so exhausted. The Doctor said that this time when we go home, Evan will be doing much better than the first time. He will feel like a new man by Wednesday or Thursday. I think we just got released before Evan's body was ready the first time. We are feeling a little discouraged with this set back and Evan hates having to be back in that miserable bed again but I feel relieved that the pressure is off of me for a little while. I will continue to be with Evan while he is in the hospital so I will not return back to work until next week. Cody is back over to my sister's house so I know he is in good hands while we are gone. Thanks Heather for your sweet offer to help us with Cody. I also wanted to thank those that fasted on our behalf yesterday. I don't know what we would do without all of the love and support that we have received, we truly have been blessed.

Love Evan & Julie

Back in the Hospital

We are back in the hospital again after Evan began to have a fever every night but this morning and then again tonight it got up to 101.5 and so the Doctor wanted us to run to ER and get his PIC line pulled and get a CT scan. I don't have any more information at this point other than we are in room 1001. I'm sure we will find out more once the doc comes in. It is still the middle of the night so I will post the latest once we hear anything. I hope that we will not have to be here for very long. Bummer!!

Difficult Night

The last couple of nights were difficult for Evan. Yesterday we found out that one of the meds that Evan was on was lowering his blood pressure too much and it was making him dizzy when he stood up so it made him sick to his stomach for the majority of the day. After talking with the doctor, we didn’t give it to him last night but still he had a difficult night. He was up throwing up throughout the night and he started into a fever. We have been able to control the fever so far today but as a result of the night, he is having pain when he breathes. He feels that if he lies down he can’t take in enough air, and when he does, it causes him some pain. I think that it is just because of his muscles being used to throw up so much. My neighbor came over and checked his blood pressure this morning and said that he was okay there but that his heart rate was up just a little. Evan was a good sport today and went with me to do some running around even though he really didn’t feel well enough to travel. It took a lot out of him to do this but I still don’t feel comfortable in leaving him alone and I really needed to get some things done. I worry about having to leave him on Monday when I go back to work. I have a very sweet neighbor that is a nurse and she is going to come in and give him his shot and get him hooked up to his TPN on the days that she doesn’t have to work. On the days that she can’t do it, I will have to take some time away from work to come home and take care of him.

Dr. Visit

Today we went to see the doctor because of the concern over Evan’s incision. The doctor decided to open up a section of the incision and when he did, he found a large blood clot that needed to be removed. I guess that once you open up the incision it can’t be closed back up because you are pretty much guaranteed an infection so the doctor packed it up with gauze and covered it up. He now has the first opening that is 1 inch wide, 1 ½ inches long and 1 inch deep and this new opening that is about 4 inches long, 2 inches wide and 1 inch deep. We also will have to give him a new medicine to stop the drainage and this should help him heal a little faster. This new medicine is given three times a day by syringe. This has set us back a bit and will require a lot more care on my part. We also found out that Evan will be on the TPN for another 2 -3 weeks which means he will still not be able to eat or drink anything for that long. Physically, Evan still tires out easily but every day he is getting stronger.

PUN vs RN

My house looks like a pharmacy; we have everything we need to play doctor. Teehehehe Evan says I am a PUN, a Personal Unregistered Nurse. I am really getting very good at this nursing thing. The home nurse has shown me how to do everything so I am pretty much on my own now. Every night I have to hook up a TPN bag (this is liquid food/nourishment) to Evan’s PIC line in his arm. Hooking up the TPN is a very long process because it has to be so sterile and I have to add vitamins and insulin to the TPN bag. The TPN is full of sugar so I have to check Evan’s glucose levels and give him insulin shots several times during the night. In the morning I have to disconnect the TPN and flush out the PIC line so that it doesn’t get plugged. Next I have to crush up his meds and liquefy them so I and push them into his “J” tube. Of course there is the replacement of the bandages and the list goes on an on. My days are very busy but I am learning a lot. It is looking like there is another spot on Evan’s incision that is going bad, but I will place my scheduled call into the doctor tomorrow morning and see if we can get an appointment to see him. The doctor might have to re-open the incision to drain the fluid that is causing all of the problems and then close it back up again. If he does this, it will just be an in-office procedure. I feel so blessed that we have the jobs that we have and that I can take the time to here to take care of my sweetheart. I must send a special thanks to our co-workers at UDOT and Kennecott for all of their support during our absences.

Home at last

We are finally home at last!

Dr. Ott and Evan

Sunday morning 6:00am Dr. Ott came to see us before he went to his church meetings. It's nice to know that your Doctor is being led by the spirit.

Almost Home

The Doctor said we might be going home tomorrow (Monday). :o) Evan still can't eat anything and is fed through a PIC line that goes from under his right arm into his heart. They tried to feed him through the “J” line in his abdomen but it caused some leaking internally. He is still trying to keep things interesting for the Doctor. Teehehehe We will have a nurse come to our house everyday to give him his bag of liquid dinner, check his vitals, and change his dressings. I will still need to keep close vigilance on him so I won’t be going out any where for a while but our neighbors might see us walking to the mailbox for one of our daily walks. He still gets tired easily but perks up quickly after a little cat nap. I can’t think of anything else to share so I will wish each of you a happy Sunday and we will see you all soon.

Evan & Julie

It only gets better

Everyday is better than the last. HE’S BACK!!! Today Evan was laughing and joking with everyone, he even challenged the nurses to a race down the hall. Of course they graciously declined because Evan could beat them. (not really) His walks tire him out but after a little cat nap, he is ready to laugh and play some more. My only concern is his incision; at the top, the skin has begun to die and has turned gray and mushy. This has left a hole about the size of a quarter and about an inch deep. It was only about the size of a dime yesterday but it is started moving down the incision. The doc has put a stop to it we hope but he is not going to be able to stitch it back together so it will just have to close on it’s own. He is also concerned that there is fluid trapped beneath the surface of the incision and is considering opening it back up to release it. This really is fairly minor and shouldn’t set his recovery back, it has just made it more interesting. Dr. Ott comes in and checks on him twice a day and seems pleased with Evan’s progress.

Saturday, I get to play with Cody. It has been hard to pawn him out to others and not get to see him very often so I am making tomorrow his day. We are going to go to Lagoon!! Cody has stayed with Julie and Travis Naisbitt (our friends and neighbors) for the first two nights and now he is with my sister, LaWaine. I have spent every day and every night at the hospital and the only time I am home is to take a quick shower and then back I go again. Evan has become to depend on me always being there and is feeling a little abandoned but he knows how important it is that I spend some time with our son. I have left him in the hands of his wonderful brothers and sisters, who are so sweet to take time out of their schedules to be with him. Evan is getting better at getting up and down and can do it without help now so there really isn’t a need for someone to be with him 24/7 anymore but for my own peace of mind, it is nice to know someone is close by. Saturday night I will be back up at the hospital ready to make the couch my bed again because it is too hard to be without him and it gives us both peace of mind.

Thank you again for all your love and support, we are truly humbled by your generosity and love.
Evan & Julie

Singing and Dancing

First of all, Evan wants me to convey his gratitude and his love to all of you. I have been reading all of the wonderful messages to Evan that you all have posted. I also add my thanks for your words of encouragement, love and support. We have also, enjoyed the many visits we have received.

Today was a great day for Evan :o) When he woke up this morning he was ready to go for a walk. When he stood up and was waiting for us to gather all of his IV tubes and such, he did a little dance for us because he was feeling so good. Then when the nurse asked him where he wanted to walk to….(the most he has walked was about 10 yrds) his response was “I’m walking to Costco”. He took a lap around the whole 10th floor and he has taken 3 more laps since. He even sang a little song for the nurses on his walk. It is nice to see his personality coming back. He has been awake all day today with only a couple of cat naps earlier in the day. The doctor came in again to check Evan’s incision and found that his skin has blistered and has caused some concern in regards to infection but nothing to worry too much about tonight.

I need to clarify some information on the type of cancer Evan has. Neuroendocrine Cancer is still in the Carsinoid cancer family and is a slow growing cancer. There are three levels of Neuroedocrine cancer and Evan has the lowest level. Really, the news we received was not as bad as I originally thought. After doing some research and thinking through what I had been told, I realized that perhaps this is a blessing. When we were told that it was Carsinoid cancer, we were told that chemo wouldn’t work on it. When the surgery was over, the doctor said that the tumors in the liver were too many to count. My theory is that if it was Carsinoid then all we could do would be to sit back and watch the tumors grow and not do a thing about them, but with this other low level cancer, we now have the option to battle the tumors with chemo. We have the option to fight now where we didn’t have any options before.

Thanks again for all you do for our family

Evan & Julie

Wow, what a day!!

I don't know if I should say today was a good day or a bad day. I stayed with Evan all night and he slept very well and in the morning he seemed to be doing great. I left him in the care of our daughter while I escaped to go home for a quick shower and a sandwich. While I was out, it got a little scary for her because Evan started coughing (which is a really good thing) but it made her a bit nervous. The floor doctor came in and said that he was not breathing deep enough because he was giving himself too much pain medicine with the medicine pump he got last night. If he didn’t start breathing deeper then he would be on his way to getting pneumonia so the doc took his med pump away. (silly boy) So, when I returned, we took him for a walk and then sat him in a chair to stimulate his breathing. While he was sitting there I noticed that his heart rate was up really high (150) and the alarms were going off. No one seemed to be concerned about it because no one came so I thought it was okay. (dummy me) After sitting there for about 3 hours, Dr. Ott came in and ushered everyone out of the room so he could check Evan. He noticed Evans heart rate and pressed the nurse button but of course no one responded (as usual). The doctor ran down the hall and the next thing we knew, every nurse and floor doctor was trailing after Dr. Ott and into Evan’s room. Words like “fibrillation” and “shock trauma” were being used. They were going to admit him back into ICU but Dr. Ott gave Evan an injection of some kind that slows down the heart rate and that seemed to do the trick. His heart rate quickly lowered down to 100 and now that he is sleeping it has lowered down to 74. He took another walk just before bed and sat in his chair for a bit and seems to be doing great again. They have changed his pain meds to a non-sleepy kind which should help him to breath deeper and not get so relaxed. I will stay the night again tonight to keep an eye on him.